Recent research conducted by the American Chemical Society has given hope to millions of women across the nation. Ravi F. Saraf and Chieu Van Nguyen have been trying to come up with a method of even earlier detection for breast cancer. Mammograms and clinical breast exams are precautionary but it appears that their might be flaws. Tumors, or lumps, are typically detected through mammography and clinical visits when they are around 21 millimeters. So, what Saraf and Nguyen are trying to design is a way to detect lumps before they reach 21 millimeters in length. It is reported in the article that, “Detecting lumps and determining their shape when they’re less than half that size improves a patient’s survival rate by more than 94 percent.” This is a truly amazing breakthrough. 

The design is called and electronic skin. Not much detail was released about the screening process and how the electronic skin works, but the idea of the electronic skin is to detect and feel out all the lumps that less than 21 millimeters deep. They conducted a study with silicon and lump-like inserts and found that the electronic skin was able to find lumps that were only 5 millimeters in length and 20 millimeters in depth. Because this electronic skin is able to detect such small lumps, the American Chemical Society believes that this creation will also serve as early detection for other cancers including melanoma.

I believe that this research is truly profound and I hope all the women reading this blog are just as thrilled by this study as I am. Breast cancer takes so many lives every year and now we have even a better method of detecting breast cancer early on. I would argue that this particular article didn’t provide enough information about how the electronic skin works. With or without that information, the article showed that current research and testing development is still taking place, leaving readers with high hopes for the new discovery.

I included the image from the article to show all of you what is being missed during regular clinical visits and through the usage of mammography. The lumps demonstrated in this picture are now detectable using the electronic skin.

Works Cited:

American Chemical Society. “‘Electronic skin’ could improve early breast cancer detection.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 10 September 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140910120426.htm>.